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Earlier this week, Lance Duston wrote on his BDN blog about the need for better-qualified public officials. He argued that voters need to get rid of their fixation on candidates’ regular-guy appeal and instead support those who have government experience and relevant education. I agree with Lance on his first point, but I think he misses the […]

Of all the threats to American lives, few frighten the country more than terrorism. Thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of people elsewhere in the world have lost their lives to terrorism over the past two decades. ISIS has killed upwards of 50,000 people over the course of their existence, one or two hundred of […]

The BDN Editorial Board sort of beat me to the punch here, but their article makes a similar point in a different way, so I’m still posting my take. Donald Trump won the election on a false hope. He said and promised many things that brought him the support that delivered him the presidency, but […]

Earlier this year, Sweden complained about finding American lobsters in nearby waters and called for a ban on imports of the crustacean. Last week, the EU took a major step forward in the process for pursuing such a ban when a scientific review body said that Sweden’s complaint has merit. That means that a further review will now be […]

One of the key issues underlying the political currents driving the election this year is free trade. The candidates frequently discuss the topic itself, but trade is also an indirect cause or contributor to the broader sentiments defining each political side. On the right you have supporters of Donald Trump looking warily at the rest of the […]

There are a lot of incredible facts about China’s economy. That they used more concrete between 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. did in the entire 20th century, for instance. Or that the government plans to lay off five to six million workers from state industries in the next two to three years. But here’s a […]

The Trans Pacific Partnership. A name simultaneously so grand and so vague that it’s easy to find it either ominous or inspirational, depending on your disposition. At the highest level, the TPP is pretty easy to understand. It’s a big free trade agreement—the biggest ever in fact—between some Pacific Rim countries. Start delving into the […]

This post continues a series of articles on the Trans Pacific Partnership and discusses the stances of Senators Susan Collins and Angus King on the issue. Read the first post, on Reps. Chellie Pingree and Bruce Poliquin, here. Susan Collins Figuring out Susan Collins’ stance on the TPP is not quite as easy as Chellie […]

My next full post is requiring a bit more research than usual, so in the meantime, here is a tidbit of news to hold you over: Maine tends to make it into the national news just a few times a year. Of those stories, only a couple find their way into the international spotlight. Governor […]

On Christmas Eve, we saw the cheery news that Maine was the only state in the nation to have more deaths than births last year. While seven other states also saw population declines, it was due solely to people moving. Marking the third year in a row deaths have topped births, the report is a […]

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Phoenix McLaughlin

Phoenix McLaughlin works at the National Endowment for Democracy helping to foster political development in Asia. Phoenix lives in Washington, D.C. now, but was born and raised in Norway, Maine. In between, he has studied and/or worked in Colorado, Nepal, India, France, Ethiopia, and Augusta. All opinions expressed on this blog are solely his own and do not represent his current or former employers.